Of Burden
by HumanDuality
Summary: Of Burden ch-3
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and am making no profit from this story.

Warning: will contain violence, cursing, being cursed, casual decapitation (in the future), and death (sexual situation may or may not exist in the future).

Warning2: This is a beta (rough-draft) and is subject to revision/deletion depending on how royally I fucked it up.

"---" speech (normal)

'---' thoughts

"**abc**" giant crap (summons and the like)

* * *

"The seal...no!" was all Minato could say. Blood, his blood, had fallen upon both his newborn son and the seal. The fox had struck him while he attempted to activate the Shinigami summon - and the seal being intricate as it was - required that it be untouched. He had no choice but to continue on and hope he could quickly fix the blood stained portions of the seal "Soldiers of Konoha hold for a few more min-".

His voice faltered as he saw his shinobi fighting vainly against the beast, he had to finish quickly. Blood flowing from his wound and vision fading, he began the process of (clumsily) attempting to salvage the seal by using his blood to write new arrays which would, in theory, not interfere with the original. 'Jiraiya would have been a great help...yet he had been wounded too gravely in the onset of the battle', Minato thought, 'at least he will survive to care for my child'.

The fox attempted to strike the wounded Hokage once again, but was interrupted by the giant summon. Gamabunta held steady, but knew that in mere moments his guard would be broken, leaving Minato without protection. Suddenly Gamabunta felt the faint pulsing of chakra behind him...'that son-of-a-bitch finally completed the seal!' "**Humans** -", the towering toad bellowed "- **move away from the fox**!". As the shinobi retreated, the skies began to darken and an ominous energy filled the air..."**This isn't the Shiniga**-" a horrifying sound overtook the sound of the toad's voice.

A hollow laughter blew through the wind and dominated the whole of Konoha. The being stood at twice the the toad's size with what could only be called a parody of the human shape. It's massive jaws were unhinged and dangled only connected by muscle and tissue, eyes simply didn't exist, the tendon and muscle were seen through missing patches of skin, every bone was either cracked or dislocated. Most terrifying of all was how still the monstrosity stood, no twitch of muscle - not even it's exposed heart twitched inside the fully viewable ribcage!

Minato fell to his knees and stared at the monsters non-beating heart and stated almost breathlessly, "I - I've summoned the God of Obliteration." As if to reply to his title, the god let loose a roar filled with agony, The One Born of Destruction raised its mangled arm and struck through the nine-tailed demon. It was simply no more, the only remnant of it's existence was the freely moving chakra which encircled the god's arm. The fox couldn't even struggle before that which even the Shinigami would flee from.

Gamabunta stood ready to defend his summoner, but knew his limit had long been reached, turned to Minato and spoke "**Old friend, forgive me, I have no more chakra**". Gamabunta was forced to return, leaving Minato to whatever end he was to have.

The Denier of Existence turned it's attention to the mortal who would dare attempt to command it and spoke in a hollow and broken voice, "**yOu...MorTaL...shALl...paY...My...PrICE**". Minato desperately yelled what would be his last words, "Please! Spare my village and my ch-", his voice was heard no more, silence was only averted by the sound of a crying baby.

The Bane of All Which is Mortal and All Which is Timeless spoke once more "**ChILd...OF...BuRDen...YoU...ShaLL...Be...SpAred...WiTH...HeAVy...CoNseQuenCe**". Chaos Incarnate raised it's decaying foot and crushed the child, absorbing his chakra. The flattened remains of Minato's baby were then rebuilt with the kitsune's volatile chakra, bone, muscle, and tissue quickly formed and placed itself together like some macabre jigsaw puzzle. It looked once more upon the gathered humans and released a sickeningly humored laugh...as if amused by their sheer insignificance...and it faded into the domain of nothingness.

The old Hokage, Sarutobi - his left leg damaged by a earthjutsu gone haywire (friendly fire) - limped toward the likely dead child, what he saw would haunt his dreams even after death. The newborn Namikaze was seemingly attempting to breath, gaping much like a fish out of water, eyes opened wide...irises which were once blue, now dull gray, sclera which should have been white, now the color of rust, and pupil's now bright silver. The newborns skin paled to match his gray irises, he picked up the child and rushed (as fast as a man with a busted leg could) him to the hospital - once more looking down at the baby - Sarutobi nearly dropped him when he noticed an actual word being silently mouthed by the child twice damned.

"Burden, burden, burden, burden..."

* * *

Sarutobi looked at the completely submissive council, most of the civilian leaders had either fled Konoha or had died attempting to flee from the Kyuubi, even the old war-hawk had fallen in the battle against the mighty beast. "Citizens and shinobi of the konoha, I will be assuming command of the Hokage position. Any who oppose this please make yourselves known." No member of the council resisted his decision to regain his old position. "Then under the Wartime Charter, I hereby exercise my right to declare martial law -", any further words were interrupted by the sounds of the remaining civilian's standing as they were escorted out of the meeting by ANBU agents...this was business of the military, not merchants.

Sarutobi then spoke to the still exhausted clan leaders, "Nara-san, tell us the estimated damage to our forces and our logistic situation."

The tired voice of Shikaku answered "Our forces have sustained massive casualties; of our 450 Genin, 198 Chunin, 72 Jonin, and 33 ANBU, we have lost 275 Genin, 104 Chunin, 24 Jonin and 7 ANBU by either death or career ending injuries." The council room was deathly silent until Shikaku spoke once more, "Logistically, we have taken minimal damage as the Kyuubi had been lured into the shinobi housing section, but many of the civilian leaders are dead as they lived nearby. Our recovery financially, while relatively quick, will prove chaotic as new leadership will be needed. Civilian casualties were heavy, of our original population numbering 27,000 we have 1,658 injured, 835 dead, and over 1,200 unaccounted for. Our greatest concern regarding them is the number which will likely leave Konoha after this incident."

Shikaku sighed and looked at Sarutobi as if asking permission to excuse himself, the aged leader motioned him to continue. "Our supplies in terms of weaponry are still plentiful, but some of our food storage units were damaged, we will have to begin rationing food until our next harvest and -". Shikaku's voice cracked and he began quietly sobbing in front of the council, "I-I'm sorry Hokage-sama, my daughter was... please excuse me." He quickly left to find his grief stricken wife, Sarutobi made no effort to stop him.

"Hyuuga-san please continue with the report."

The Hyuuga clan leader spoke "Hunter-nin had no casualties as most were on other assignments or doing their yearly combat review in Suna, we also had no casualties among our academy student pool as they were fastest to evacuate, I would recommend conscription of the top quarter of all academy classes, this should give us about a further 80 shinobi."

Sarutobi motioned a nearby ANBU agent and said "I hereby exercise the right to commission said students by the Wartime Charter, clause 6, effective immediately - collect my new shinobi, Inu-san." The ANBU agent began his mission without complaint.

"Hyuuga-san, what of our current medical situation?" The clan leader gave a cool reply, "currently we have lost about half our medic shinobi, but civilian doctors are all accounted for and are now dealing with the wounded. Hokage-sama, Tsunade has left of her own accord and the medic's are in disarray, the civilian's won't be able to keep up with the wonded without some form of assistance."

Sarutobi knew he was too old to be handling such affairs...hell he knew he was likely decaying as he walked! "What would the council suggest then?"

The question was answered by Yamanaka "I suggest pulling all shinobi from search and rescue duty and using them to help treat the lesser wonded, they all have at least minimal medic training at Chunin level, and Genin know at least first-aid, this action would likely condemn any survivors of the attack."

The Hokage nodded in acceptance "Looking for survivors when we can't even treat them would be a waste of time, Yamanaka, you will organize them so that they may assist in treating the wounded."

"Of course, Hokage-sama" was his only reply before quickly disappearing in a swirl of leaves

"Now then -" interrupted the Inuzuka clan head "-what is to be done about the child?" No one spoke for what seemed an eternity, until the Uchiha clan head stated his opinion "I recommend, Hokage-sama, that the child be placed under heavy guard until Jiraiya can inspect the seal for any...difficulties that may have occurred."

Sarutobi nodded in approval and stated, "Uchiha I agree with your proposal, now what do we do with the child should he be...cleared by Jiraiya?"

Tsume Inuzuka spoke once more "I propose putting him in either the civilian population, listed as an orphan (only Sarutobi and the witnesses of the sealing knew who his parents were) or be raised among shinobi so that he may be trained as one..."

Sarutobi interrupted "are you suggesting we create a weapon?!"

"N-no Hokage-sama, I simply wanted to ensure his safety by giving our shinobi an excuse to remain by him!" Tsume quickly corrected herself.

"I see...very well he will be placed among the civilian populace and be granted the right to become shinobi if he so desires. His identity, henceforth, is Naruto Uzumaki - status civilian - birth parents dead/unknown - his...condition is now considered an execution class secret." No one denied the God of Shinobi, "Danzo left us with quite a gift," he quickly moved to the next topic, "his Nu division will be added to our troops, after 're-education', of course."

"What of those who cannot be 're-educated'?" asked the normally silent Aburame.

"They shall be given to the gods for judgment." The room turned cold at the implications...simple murder.

"Now then I will adjourn this meeting as we all need rest for the coming days -" Sarutobi rested is head on the palm of his hand and waved the council off with the other "- now get out of my sight." The room emptied quickly, leaving the tired and pained Hokage alone. "Minato you bastard! Now I can't even kick your ass in the afterlife for leaving me with your problems!" His now clenched fist slammed into the table obliterating it...

* * *

Notes begin here, ignore at your discretion*

Shinobi/civilian numbers are made up, and as are the laws (to my knowledge, as I have only read the series once), the god was given a multitude of titles (which required capitalization) and was entirely bullshi-er made up. Any help with the -san -sama bullcrap would be welcome (don't fully understand it, only told that I should add it to the story) researching for fiction can be rather annoying. There will also be some time/age changes to suit what (I think) I want to do in future chapters.

Some of you may be wondering about the changes I've made to the Naruto universe, well to be completely honest I read the whole series in a single sitting and quite frankly dislike it. This "fic", as you people call it, was made due to a challenge made by a friend who said I lacked the creativity to make such a story, I took up the challenge and she asked me to write about this comic/manga (as well as something called a 'crossover' dealing with a show 'Love Hina' and game 'Disgaea', if anyone would be kind enough to tell me what these (and possibly give me a link to these) are so I can get her off my back...), so here I am dead tired from reading and annoyed at the sheer impossibilities in this world (I mean come on, regularly defying physics, impossible human movements, and the ability to spit giant balls of fire - by the god's I have a headache from trying to find ways to explain half that crap in my story), so don't expect me to be kind to some characters who I find annoying or I simply have no concern for. Killing some off or completely ignoring them would lessen the amount of potential time I would have to otherwise spend developing them (this extends to all major/minor/main character(s)).

Those of you who are into romance, I will try to appease you, but I'm not sure how to go about implementing it just yet (I wrote this without any direction or plan, and I intend for all my other chapters to be written as such, it's somewhat amusing that way). Drama, as you saw above, is not my forte (I feel there is enough in life as is...don't really want it in my literature too, one must likely be a masochist to want more), but I will do my best.

Know that regardless of weather you - like/disliked/don't care for - my story, I hate you all...but I hate you all equally, have a pleasant morning/day/evening/night...

Appx. word count minus notes and warning 1700+ (hope to improve this number)

Time taken - 1 hour to write, 20 mins reaserch into name spellings, and 15 mins grammar/spelling correction (unsatisfied with resulting story).

Next chapter will be out when I feel like writing (or my friend/soon-to-be-aquaintance annoys me enough...)


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Please refer to chapter one

Warnings : Again, refer to chapter one

*Important changes to the story

Age's of characters will be changed, the sealing occurred five years before it happened in cannon (this makes Naruto 17 at this point, not 12 as in cannon - Naruto's parents, by default, also age by the appropriate amount of years). Other characters will be considered normal age (as in the original story) unless otherwise noted.

* * *

Seventeen years had passed since the sealing, we find a young man sitting atop the Hokage Monument looking at the wonderful blue sky, how he had waited for this moment of freedom. Eight years...for eight miserable years he had been imprisoned in the Hokage Tower, never leaving without some kind form of 'escort and shackle'. How the old men had apologized time and again for his mistreatment - and though he understood fully - he always resented it, but never them 'after all', he thought, 'those old men kept me safe from the villagers'. Well the time hadn't been spent idly, he toiled and suffered in overcoming his 'condition' and studied under some of the most learned men all for this moment. He stood slowly, enjoying as the wind blew through his messy ash gray hair, he made a rude gesture to the village hoping that everyone could see, but knowing nobody would. He looked back to the sky and thought about less complicated, albeit more painful, times...

* * *

Twelve years prior...

A young boy sat alone watching the other children run and play while he lay in bed ill as usual, at five years old he had been hospitalized at least once every week, collapsing from fatigue and fever. The other children always made some time for him, but he could never go outside, his frail constitution ensured that he remain bedridden. He was always happy when the first of the month came, that was when the one-armed old man he dubbed 'Pervert-san' (as he had heard one of the female orphanage caretakers call him) would come and visit him. Pervert-san was always so nice, telling him adventure stories about shinobi and giving him new exotic foods that the hospital staff and caretakers would never let him have, ramen had been one of his favorites. He was always so sad when it came time for old Pervert-san to go, but he always gave him this cool tattoo when he left, the drawings would last a few days and even made him feel a little better, "be good for uncle Pervert-san, Naruto!" he would always say before leaving.

"Naruto" the old caretaker he dubbed 'crazy eye' (Strabismus, if anyone is interested in the condition) said, "a family is here to adopt you!". Naruto beamed at this and readied his things to leave, surely this time the family would keep him for longer than a few weeks!

* * *

Nine years prior...

Naruto, now eight years old, was more than a little irritated at having to leave the orphanage for the umpteenth time, another family pitied the poor sickly child and wanted to care for him. He was always brought back within 2-3 weeks, no potential family could handle the stress (financial and emotional) of a child who would randomly collapse with a high fever and need be rushed to the hospital. He remembered the nurse saying something about 'lacking a chakra system completely' and 'inability to handle non-sterile environments' or something like that on one of his visits. One of the younger kids helped him pack his things, and off Naruto went...another family to burden and be cast away from, then he would be back, hopefully in time for Pervert-san's visits, missing them was literally painful...

* * *

Current time -

He was brought out of his reminiscing by the presence of a certain sannin "Hello Ero-sennin and happy birthday, this make you 51 right?" (hope I got this right)

The Jaraiya smiled, "well brat, what did you get me? Last year 'gift' was one of the best I have ever had!"

"Ero-sennin, last year I hired a famous prostitute...do you have any idea how expensive that was?! I had to pay for her service, travel, and she even had the gall to ask for extra due to you being a cripple! Shit, your only missing an arm...at least you were satisfied for quite some time...what was it, three weeks without peeping on women?"

"Hey it made your uncle Pervert-san happy! So what can I expect this year?", Jaraiya asked while slowly rubbing his hands together.

Naruto suddenly looked very serious "I have been working on this all year, it is both your gift and my final test as a Seal Specialist to earn the distinction of Seal Master. Will you, my former master be witness and judge of my initiation, Sarutobi has already agreed to be the second witness."

Jaraiya immediately ceased smiling while gaining a rigid stance and formally replied "I, Jaraiya, of the Seal Master class, acknowledge and allow your test. In accordance to the test you are required to create a class A rank sealing that must be original and must be preformed alone." He then became silent for a few moments before speaking again, "Naruto, regardless of the outcome today, I want you to know how proud I am of you, now make this the best birthday I will ever have!"

"You want me to out do that 'tight and well endowed beauty' I got you last year. That might be asking a little too much, ne?" They laughed all the way to the site of the test - the Hokage's office.

* * *

"Greeting's oh mighty ancient one!" Sarutobi glared at the intruder and responded "Just get on with the procedure, Naruto-kun."

"Alright lets see this new seal project, please explain its function and give a demonstration so that I and Sarutobi-sensei can evaluate it."

Naruto quickly brought out a small sealing scroll and summoned its contents, a strange metal arm. "This, gentlemen, is my new project -" holding the strange device so that both witnesses can examine it, "- this seal will fully simulate the functions of a human arm. As we all know, basic prosthetic limbs don't allow for much mobility, and puppetry requires active concentration making a puppet arm useless unless you have mastered puppetry or have an absurd level of chakra control. This arm will automatically draw a small amount of chakra to simulate not only movement, but also feeling, as the nervous system is completely recreated via various arrays of my own design."

"Th-this is amazing Naruto, how long did this take you to create?" asked a rather stunned Jaraiya.

"Well," Naruto began "many other seal masters tried to create this specific arm, but ultimately failed due to requiring incredibly precise array arraignments, only one other managed to get a semi-functioning limb, and even then they were forced to rely on heavy draining seals that would kill normal people, and hospitalize most well trained Jonin. I succeeded by creating various small draining seals that alternate activation cycles based on a persons nervous connections to the brain allowing for only needed movements to be preformed at minimal chakra cost." Naruto then began to take apart the mechanical arm and slowly drew strange seals in a red ink. "To make these seals work I used a specific chemical formula that I won't state as this is my original seal, and as thus needs to be protected to ensure it remains only mine. Now as this arm has the exact same structure as a human arm, I must draw a multitude of arrays that simulate both tenketsu and muscle movement, please wait silently so that I may give proper concentration to my project."

After over two hours of drawing on the mechanical arm Naruto gestured Jaraiya over, "Ero-sennin, I have completed my project, the process of attachment will be somewhat painful, but will effectively give you a new arm to replace the one that you lost fighting the nine-tailed beast, it will attach automatically when you focus chakra on your shoulder, please begin."

With that Jaraiya molded his chakra and immediately began screaming in pain, the arm then seemingly burned itself into his skin giving off a sicking smell of burned flesh. The Seal Master then fell to his knees, the pain was too much to bare, and suddenly the pain stopped! Jaraiya regained his composure and looked hopefully to his new mechanical arm...no movement, no matter how he willed it, the arm remained stationary - the seal failed. "Naruto, thank you for trying, it was very considera-", Jaraiya looked wide eyed at the arm and actually felt something, then movement, the first action Jaraiya did with his arm was to embrace his godson.

"Well I'm going to make the assumption that this means I pass the test to become seals master." Jaraiya merely smiled and nodded, while Sarutobi finally made his presence known "Congratulations on achieving master status, but now we are left with a problem, you are the first Seal Master to ever be a civilian, as thus, I must now resolve the issue of your new dual status. You are not required to obey shinobi law, but as a Seal Master, you are also above civilian law. Naruto Uzumaki, you will now be capable of selecting your own missions to whomever you deem needing it. As of now you will follow only the orders of whatever Daimyo or Kage rules where you reside in, you must also follow the orders of whomever may hire you, unless you break contract - resulting in a loss of reputation and potential customers. Your previous missions will be erased from file, as they were under the direction of either myself or your master, thus your reputation will be determined solely by you, as no-one knows you are the apprentice of Jaraiya." Sarutobi smiled warmly at the youth before him, "May luck bless you Uzumaki-san."

The masters left quickly knowing that the Hokage was busy and they had taken quite significant amount of time with the new seal. "So tell me the limits of my new arm." Jaraiya was all too excited, now he would have an easier time with the paperwork that goes with being a spy (and by extension his book).

"Ero-sennin calm down, your arm works as a normal arm, meaning you can't utilize it in actual physical combat, as civilians typically lack strength, but you can form chakra so ninjutsu will not be a problem. You will have to get it checked by me at least yearly to ensure the seals are still functioning properly, you could check it yourself but would likely not be able to fix any problems as the seal requires my ink".

"That's fine, as long as I have my dominant hand back I'll be happy, though a prostitute would also be nice." Jaraiya gave a sleazy smile, "come to think of it you haven't gotten any yet, why don't we get you laid?"

"Hm, well I would, but I'm making plans for my first mission, and it will be a rather difficult one." Naruto quickly changed topics.

"Oh, what job is this, I figured with your saved money and recent promotion you would have at least taken a few days off."

"Well, if your really interested I've actually taken one job and a side project, the main job is dealing with your teammate's curse seal, the other is with a pervert's screwy eye."

Jaraiya sighed at his pupils ambitions "Look I know you mean well, but those are problems that neither Sarutobi-sensei or I have been able to figure out, what makes you think you can?"

"I have already found a way to complete the seal matrix for the curse, my side project still needs some revisions, I hope you'll help me with both, fellow Seal Master."

"Show me tomorrow, today we celebrate the great Jaraiya-sama's birthday." was all Jaraiya said.

* * *

As you can see I jumped around a bit in the time-line, expect more of the same in future chapters (as I still have to reveal the 'condition' among other things).


	3. Chapter 3

Refer to chapter 1 and 2 for disclaimer/warning

"..." speaking

'...' thinking

"So Naruto, you've managed to actually managed to break Orochimaru's curse seal." Jaraiya slowly read and reread the youth's notes, every aspect had been carefully thought out and nothing seemed missing yet..."Naruto, this seal is easily S ranked I wouldn't normally allow anyone to even try this type of sealing, but given your 'condition' you should have no real problems. So are you really going through with this?"

"This job has been on the market for some time now, I have been researching it since I graduated from apprentice level, I'm not about to give-up on it now. I'll be heading to meet my client during her lunch break, after all dango is her favorite meal..." Naruto spoke as he wrote the finishing touches on his theory, "Jaraiya, your hangover medicine is on the top drawer to your right. You really should lay-off the alcohol, you're not as young as you once were."

"Shut it brat, though I don't think I should have had that fourth bottle...or sixth for that matter. I have to say, this arm is excellent, I even felt that nice girl's plump rear -"

"Yeah, much like your right cheek felt her left palm?" a glare answered Naruto's question "You'll never learn will you Ero-sennin, anyway I need to get moving if I want to make it to that dango stand in time so get out of my home or at least stay away from my explosives."

"Bah, I only blew up your house once, besides leaving such dangerous tags out in the open is asking for trouble."

"Only once my ass! You've nearly leveled the place on three different occasions! Hell I didn't even know how you managed to do it the first time, those tag's didn't even have the damned primer array drawn in!"

"No need to get so mad about it, I paid for the repairs." Jaraiya had a bashful look on his face as he rubbed his nose.

"Just...just do whatever, I don't even care anymore. I'll be back later, Under the assumption that my client accepts my help, the sealing will happen tomorrow at the Hokage's Tower, ."

"You know what they say about that..."

"Say about what?"

"Never assume anything, it makes an ass out of u and me" Jaraiya said now sporting a smirk.

"...Assumption carries no 'e', so the most we can do is make an ass out of you," the smirk fell off Jariya's face, "that joke had no real place in the discussion, you really need to work on your timing. Lock up on your way out!" Naruto quickly made his exit.

"Stupid brat, I've been waiting for a chance to use that one for a long time." Jaraiya mumbled to himself

Naruto walked among the populace for the first time, or at least without a disguise and escort. 'Glad no one really remembers my appearance, well aside the doctors and nurses at the hospital, though it would be kinda fun to kill-off a civilian for the hell of it.' He wandered around the busy streets for quite some time, 'where was that stand?'. After making a few more random turns he noticed his client happily munching upon a dango stick 'bingo, now to approach this in I usually do'.

Naruto strode into the establishment and sat in an empty booth, he then ordered some dango and a bottle of sake before approaching the client. He stood in front of his potential client and (rudely) dropped the plate of dango before her and casually tossed the bottle of sake to her (which was caught). "Miss Mitarashi Anko, rank Tokubetu Jonin am I correct?"

The boy had balls striding up to her in such a fashion, "What do you want gaki?". 'If this isn't important or some dumb civilian trying to get lucky...I'm castrating the bastard'.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I am here regarding a mission that involves you, though I think we should eat before discussing anything of major importance, I've yet to eat lunch after all." Naruto picked up a dango stick and slowly ate.

Anko was somewhat annoyed at his standoffish tone and manner, but found his appearance to be rather unique. Pale skin, strange colored eyes, about 20cm taller than her, and rather unprofessional clothing, black sweat pants and loose black long-sleeve shirt. She nursed her sake and ate the offered dango, they ate in comfortable silence, simply enjoying the meal before this 'Naruto' character broke the silence.

"Well, I'll get strait to the point. I wish to take the sealing mission that was posted under your name." Anko's confused expression encouraged him to explain further. "It was a S ranked mission that was mislabeled as an A rank mission...it involved a curse seal."

Anko stood up quickly "If this is your way of mocking me then get out, I'm not in the mood to be pestered by civilians," Her hand had moved to her weapon pouch, she opened it and grasped a kunai in an effort to scare him off. 'I'm not falling for this again, the bastard is just trying to get lucky.'

"Mitarashi-san I am a Seal Master, this is no joke and I wish to take the mission with your permission. If you have doubts of my qualifications, we can go to the Hokage and confirm my status."

"Gaki you're only a civilian, if you try to pose as a shinobi - much less Seal Master - in front of the Hokage you can be executed. If you still want to fuck with me like this it's going to be your end."

Naruto stood up and grabbed the last remaining dango stick before saying "well, let's get to my execution then."

"Enough brat, I know for a fact people spend years studying seals and never even make it to Seal Specialist level, you are what, 16-17? I doubt you even have basic shinobi skills." Anko was ignored once again, much to her irritation. "Do you have a death wish?"

"Mitarashi-san, kindly shut up, I want...no, need this mission to improve my standing with this village and possibly gain the attention of others. To tell you the truth, I empathize with your...situation." With that Naruto opened the main gate, walked pass a now infuriated Anko, and blatantly ignored the shout of 'you can't go in, the Hokage has an important meeting' from the secretary. He literally shoved the door to the Hokage's office open revealing the old man and the pervert with one eye.

"Naruto-kun, for once could you please wait until my meeting's are ove-" he stopped when he noticed Anko standing behind him, Sarutobi quickly grew angry. "Naruto you damnable brat, you just got released from protective custody and gained the title Seal Master, did you have to cause trouble already?" His killing intent sent Anko and Kakashi to their knees, the sudden killing intent had nearly rendered both Jonin unconscious. Sarutobi noticed the Jonin fall and quickly calmed himself before rubbing his forehead in frustration, "Anko how many villagers did he kill and who instigated the fight?"

"Now, now old man, I thought you had more confidence in me than that, I'm hurt." The sarcasm in Naruto's voice was easily caught "I'd have leveled the whole village not just killed a few."

Sarutobi calmed down at that, but was not amused by the joke. "Kakashi, as I was saying, be sure that you pass Genin sometime soon, you are one of my top Jonin and your skills should be passed on to the younger generation."

Kakashi was now leaning against a nearby wall for support quickly responded, "Of course Hokage-sama, though you should convince our civilian here to join our ranks, he seems to have...piqued my interests, training him would be enjoyable." Kakashi quickly offered a halfhearted salute before leaving in a gust of wind.

Anko tried to get back up, but eventually settled for keeping on one knee while . "Ho-Hokage-sama, we came to confirm Uzumaki's qualifications as Seal Master." Anko's breathing had begun to steady, though now she was looking wide eyed at the mentioned young man, he stood as if nothing happened, not even the slightest increase in breathing!

"Alright Naruto-kun, why did Anko want your qualifications confirmed?" 'Though I think I know why.'

"Ah, right! I wanted to take Mitarashi-san's mission, but my credibility was in question, hence why I am here."

"The curse seal mission correct?"

"Correct, I have a solution, and if I am allowed to work on the curse seal, I can remove its effects."

"You didn't lie about wanting to help me..."

Sarutobi looked at Anko who had a surprised expression, "Anko, Jaraiya of the Sannin and myself witnessed his test for Seal Master, and he has passed. He is capable of this mission if you wish him to have it. Naruto leave the seal theory you have come up with here, I wish to review it." Naruto moved his right hand to his left shoulder and pushed his chakra, a seal appeared directly below his hand as it pulsated in a strange maroon light. Two large scrolls and four smaller ones came into existence, and fell to his feet. "Alright leave them there, I will read them soon."

Anko chose this moment to finally speak, "Uzumaki-san -"

"Naruto will do fine Mitarashi-san."

"Naruto-san, can you really remove the seal?" Hope shined through her eyes.

"I will explain the procedure to you shortly, after which you can decide whether or not you want me to perform it. Now if you'll excuse me, I left a guest unattended at my home, here is my address Mitarashi-san, meet me there in about two hours." Naruto simply vanished, leaving a stunned and hopeful Anko behind.

'So the pervert left? Great, at least I know nothing blew up while I was gone.' Naruto began the process of cleaning the tag littered dining room and guest rooms, 'one day I really have to hire assistants to keep the place cleaned for me, or at least make this a D-mission, the old man would like the extra missions.' He had at least another hour and a half before his guest arrived, more than enough time to move his tags and scrolls into his workshop. Between cleaning and reorganizing his tag collections, the time went by quickly, 'guess I really should take more time to clean my things-' a knock interrupted his thoughts 'don't people know its rude to get to appointments early?'

Another knock, "Alright I'm on my way!" Imagine his surprise when he opened the door to find Anko pulling out an explosive tag. Naruto raised an eyebrow, "I guess it's a good thing I opened the door now instead of making you wait the additional half hour. Well come on in, I am rather fond of this door and am not looking for a replacement. Make yourself at home, just don't flare your chakra, most of my security seals won't react kindly to it."

Naruto motioned Anko to a near by couch and he moved to the next room, Anko took this time to examine her surroundings. 'This must be the living room, though it seems rather empty, four large couches set in a square pattern with a table in-front of each', she rested her feet on the nearby table as she waited for Naruto to return. Her eyes shifted from area to area, 'the walls are covered with tribal markings of some kind, could they be seals? Even the couch and table have seals, if that's what they are', her eyes widened when she remembered his earlier warning, 'all of these must be security seals!' She switched her attention to the doorway, Naruto stood there with two large mugs, Anko could smell the coffee from where she sat.

"Ah, Mitar-"

"Please call me Anko." As she accepted the coffee.

"Right. Well, Anko-san, lets begin with the sealing process. It is a rather long winded explanation, so please bare with it and don't interrupt." A nod answered him, "lets begin with the seals purpose, your curse seal is rather unique in that it was made as an experimental array arraignment that would allow total control over an individual. Orochimaru was not a seal master, in fact, he was barely capable of creating his own explosive tags - so many of the actual seal effects were dormant or interfered with one another. In the end this entire seal sequence is nothing short of a genius mistake, the seals just happened to align in a specific arraignment Jaraiya has called the Staggared-Manipulation Complex, or SMC. The SMC involves in what Jaraiya calls 'the clusterfuck of all clusterfucks', in essence twelve seal arrays that are connected and layered upon each other. The seals are as follows: two interrogation class seals, one that acts as a chakra inhibitor and the other a memory inhibitor, three personality manipulators, these are wired to force the individual to react violently to outside stimuli when activated. Next are five chakra invasive class seals, as their name states these seals will, upon activation, will integrate and slowly change your chakra type from neutral to corrosive. Then we have the trigger seal that activates when the individual with the seal sends chakra into it. Any questions so far?"

"Only one what is neutral and corrosive chakra?"

Naruto stared at the table for a moment before answering, "Well neutral simply means to be used by a person without ill effect. Corrosive means that the user will take damage in its usage, in this case the chakra would be sent directly to your brain via the personality manipulators and memory inhibitor. When activated by the recipient of the seal, this will cause the body to physically exceed any normal bounds held by the brain, which include full muscle control, increasing the rate of cell regeneration, and overproducing endorphins...while it is advantageous, it also reduces the user's life span and weakens the user drastically when the effects wear-off. When the seal is activated by the one who applied the seal, the brain is then forced to exceed its bounds in-terms of natural activation, meaning the average female who uses 8-10 percent of their brain at one time, will have it forcibly increased to 11-36 percent. This causes hypersensitivity of the body, psychosis, and brain damage or death depending on the amount of chakra forced into the seal."

Anko nervously began to rub the seal on her neck, she remembered the pain when the seal was first activated by her sensei, it was also her first memory due to the damage done to her brain.

"Up until now Jariya and myself have been working on a way to remove the seal effects, but the final seal, which we call the Nullified Seal, was rather difficult to work around. This seal was created with the intention of turning the applicant of the seal into a human bomb by forcing all the chakra the person has into the seal and detonate much like an explosive note when Orochimaru willed it to." Anko visibly paled at this, and gripped the seal as if wanting to tear it off. "Luckily the seal did not work as expected, instead it acted as a block that made it near impossible to remove the seal without destroying the seal applicant and anything else within 35 meters."

Anko had enough of the explanation, "Get this damned thing off of me now!" She found herself knocked off the couch by the ever stoic Naruto. "The hell?" Anko looked at the couch she had occupied only to find it skewered by shuriken.

"I would recommend that you not use your chakra while in this room, as I had said earlier, my security seals react rather negitively to it." Naruto said while removing a shuriken from the arm used to strike Anko off the couch. "Now if you've finished your outburst I'd like very much to explain the removal procedure..." Anko nodded dumbly. "In the next room I have setup most of the needed seals on the floor, for your part, you are only going to have lay face down upon the center of the room with your seal visible. I on the other hand, will need to concentrate on the seal removal, the process is expected to take about three hours, the setup took more than four months of planning and I spent the last week producing the basis of the seals. If you move too much it will not work again, your seal will either be removed or we will die." Naruto gave her a grave look, "are you absolutely prepared to face that possibility?"

"Yes, I'll do whatever is necessary to get rid of this 'gift' that monster gave me." Anko stated returning Naruto's look "and if I...no we survive, I will do anything to repay you."

"Anything?" Naruto gave an amused smile, "well then I had better not screw up, please follow me Anko-san." with that he led her to the nearby room.


End file.
